After a season-long feud with Brendon and Rachel, Vanessa and Ralph — who are no longer a couple — were edged out by their foes for the third and final spot on The Amazing Race. But who knows what would've happened had Vanessa not performed the Japanese game show Roadblock on a bum ankle. "We try not to think about it too much," she tells TVGuide.com. "It is what it is, but I can't even describe how painful it was running, jumping and falling down over and over again. ... Of course we wanted to win and beat them, but they beat us fair and square." But how did this verbal warfare all start? Get the duo's side of the story below.

Do you know how far behind Brendon and Rachel you were?Ralph: We were fairly close. I don't know the exact time. We saw them in the next step after you check-in, so we weren't that far behind.Vanessa: There were a whole bunch of conflicting reports on that. Some people told us a half-hour, some people said less, but it was closer than I ever anticipated, especially after my ordeal at the Roadblock.

You guys seemed to have made up a lot of time. How long were you at the Roadblock?Vanessa: Forever!Ralph: It was quite a while. We were the second team to show up and obviously the last team to leave. We made up some time because we saw Big Brother at the sushi challenge, but we were there for a very, very long time. It was surprising when we saw them. Vanessa was seriously hurt and she stuck it out. It hampered us being able to move any quicker and the situation was what it was.Vanessa: It was a lot of falling, screaming, getting up, falling, screaming, getting up.

Your ankle looked nasty. Why didn't you tape it up?Vanessa: We actually did. I would stop during it every once in a while and Ralph taped it up. He did a fairly good job, but every time he taped it up, it would swell so much that it looked like a tube of biscuits that you had just slammed on the counter, and my ankle would just pop out. It was gross. So the wrapping was kind of pointless. But I think they just kept using the same shot of my ankle.

Ralph, you told her to quit, but Vanessa, you were adamant about not quitting. How close were you to throwing in the towel?Vanessa: We discussed it very, very briefly. But in a situation like that, that's not how you wanna go out. I don't think you really realize what you'd do for $1 million or really anything you care that much about until you're in that situation.

Did you exacerbate your ankle injury even more?Vanessa: Well, the thing is, I have a screw in that ankle. I've torn an Achilles tendon and I've broken all the bones on top of my foot, so I knew the screw was not gonna give. I did find out later that that was inaccurate! [Laughs] It is possible to chip off the part of the screw. But I think that's where my mind was. "It's not gonna break!" But it hurt like hell. ... I just lost my footing [in India]. I wish I could say I tripped over something interesting, but it was just me being clumsy! I'm a klutz and that ankle sometimes locks up, but, really, there was no reason for me to fall the way I did and just eat it.

You had a pretty serious scrape on your right shoulder too.Vanessa: Yeah, I fell on the entire right side of my body, so I still have a scar on my shoulder, my knee. That's never going away. This shoulder looks awful! It looked like ringworm for a long time and I was really self-conscious about it.

What was your mindset like during the Race because you guys were hanging by a thread almost every leg?Ralph: [Laughs] Our goal was to always do our best, but, yeah, we thought we were done so many times. The watermelon challenge — we were there almost seven hours. When we were driving to the Roadblock, we pretty much had discussed that it was our time to go.Vanessa: The cab we took to the Roadblock — the guy stopped for gas, I thought he was gonna stop for a burger at one point. He was just talking to people. We were like, "This is ridiculous!"Ralph: As a team, we probably had the worst luck. We were on a bus and the window got blown out. We're in a cab in Africa and the guy gets a flat. Thank God that spare made it! That spare looked worse than the flat tire. It always seemed like we would get going and something happens. Vanessa, unfortunately, twisted her ankle and she had to do the next Roadblock to keep our count even and of course, with our luck, it involved running. It was just like that for us. In Europe, we're in third or fourth or even the middle of the pack, and then luck seems to find us and bite us in the ass quite a bit.

We have to talk about Brendon and Rachel obviously. How did your feud all start?Vanessa: When everybody started talking about what they do and their lives, we started talking about my political work and they challenged my political views pretty viciously. I'm fairly liberal and by "fairly," I mean pretty strongly liberal. They said something along the lines of "Oh, so you kill babies?" I'm like, "Yes, a--holes, that's what I do. I kill babies and go around shooting puppies. What the hell is the matter with you?" Obviously that didn't air; I wish it did. And she thinks I don't like her because of her sequins! No, honey, it's not because of your sequins! It's you being dumb.[Ed. Note: Read Brendon and Rachel's response here.]

You didn't have to continue interacting with her. Did you realize you could pick on her and kept doing it?Vanessa: What was interesting was once I knew I could get under her skin, then it was more — I dunno — not like a pastime... [Laughs]

You seemed to revel in it.Vanessa: Yeah. Just bless her heart. [Laughs] She's such a weak personality that anything that you say will just irk her to no end. She made it so easy. I mean, you tell me something, I kind of dust it off and it's not that big of a deal. Honestly, it's a behavior that I'm trying to modify. I didn't realize that my words would hurt people so much and seeing how vicious I could be while not even thinking twice about it and seeing it firsthand on camera has kind of opened my eyes a little bit to be nicer. So I'm being nicer.

Your nose job dig might be the line of the season.Vanessa: Yeah, but now I think it was below the belt and it was obviously mean and wrong. In hindsight, I would never say it again. But she was really asking for it.

Ralph, I think it was pretty clear that you wanted no part of that, especially in the extended Mat Chat from last week. What was your take on this whole thing?Ralph: I mean, I wasn't there for drama and Vanessa wasn't there for the drama either. I just didn't want any part of it. I really didn't. I dealt with it because obviously I'm gonna support my teammate and my partner. I was just so frustrated, though, and it was over stupid stuff. It would just escalate.Vanessa: I don't think my political views are stupid.Ralph: Well, I just think things could've been let go and handled differently. I just wanted no part of it.Vanessa: But I just want to say that there's nothing I said about her that other people didn't say. I just said it when the cameras were on. Everything I said, whether it be about them or the Mississippi girls or whoever, I just said it while cameras were rolling and they just happened to show my comments about her.

Did you know they were on Big Brother? I think a lot of people thought you watched them on it and knew how to push her buttons.Vanessa: No. I had never seen Big Brother in my life, which I think says more about her than anything.Ralph: We didn't even know they were on Big Brother until we were already racing. We had no idea who they were.

Did you kiss and make up when it was all said and done?Vanessa: [Laughs] I wouldn't say there was a kiss and a makeup. After everything wrapped, we were civil. We're human beings. We're not hanging out on the weekends or having tea or coffee or anything.

What are you up to now?Vanessa: I am the director of corporate and community partnerships for the San Antonio Talons, the new arena football team, which is fun. On game days, I get to do their in-house announcements, so I get to have more fun. It hits the nerd side of me. I get to write, strategize, do some marketing and problem-solve, and on game day, I get to be a goofy jackass who runs around and high-fives fans. It's the best of both worlds.Ralph: I'm just working and spending time with my daughter.

Vanessa Macias and Ralph Kelley were eliminated at the end of The Amazing Race's eleventh leg, making it just shy of the Final 3, during Sunday night's two-hour finale broadcast of the CBS reality competition's twentieth season.

The "Dating Divorcees" finished the Race in fourth place and were beat by champions and "Married Couple" Rachel Brown and Dave Brown, "Border Patrol Agents and Friends" Art Velez and J.J. Carrell -- who came in second place overall -- and third-place finishers, "Engaged Couple" and former Big Brother houseguests Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly.

Vanessa, who struggled with an ankle injury, and Ralph were ineligible to compete in the final twelfth leg of the Race following their ouster mid-episode, and therefore, lost their chance to compete for the million-dollar grand prize.

On Monday, Vanessa and Ralph talked to Reality TV World about their The Amazing Race experience -- including whether they'd ever consider racing in an all-stars edition although they've broken up, what was the real reason Vanessa didn't like Rachel and Brendon that the show neglected to broadcast, why Vanessa argued she's not a "mean girl," and what type of task they were extremely prepared for that didn't end up happening.

Below is the concluding portion of our exclusive interview with Vanessa and Ralph. Click here to read the first half. To read Rachel B. and Dave's entire interview, click here. To begin reading Art and J.J.'s interview, click here. To check out Rachel R. and Brendon's whole interview and read what they had to say about the two teams' arguments, click here.

Reality TV World: You guys were shown bickering a lot throughout the Race, but you always seemed to squash your issues quickly and just get through the legs. When I talked to Rachel and Dave today, they both admitted it probably would've been more efficient to race with a partner who's a friend, so do you agree with them? Do you think it's harder to compete as a couple during the Race rather or did you think you actually had an advantage working together as a dating couple?

Ralph Kelley: (Laughs) It's definitely more emotional to race with a significant other just because, if you're with a friend, you can basically tell them off and get back to what you're doing and things aren't necessarily taken to heart, whereas if you're with your significant other, you know what buttons to push and sometimes that can create a little bit more tension or make the situation a little bit more heated -- because that person's not listening to you or they say something that's kind of hurtful.

Vanessa Macias: Yeah, I can't agree with that. I think that being -- obviously Ralph is a competitor and as a partner, is a natural choice physically, but I think we're the type of personality where we don't really hold onto much long. If we got into a fight, we easily drop things. We pretty easily drop things and move on, like in Bavaria, the next day, we're fine.

Reality TV World: Speaking of friends, it sounds like you guys are getting along pretty well despite the fact you broke up. Would you say you're friends now? Are you guys on good terms?

Ralph Kelley: Yeah, we're on good terms.

Vanessa Macias: I remain friends with all my exes.

Reality TV World: That's good! You guys seemed to have the biggest issue with Rachel and Brendon throughout the season. Vanessa, especially you. So could you talk a little bit about what problems you had with them, and although you guys seemed to both apologize and bury the hatchet during one of the legs, was that actually sincere or were you just kind of being polite?

Vanessa Macias: You know, I should have never made that comment about her physical features. That was just below the belt and mean. The reasons we don't get along, and of course it didn't air, but it was because they attacked my personal and political views pretty graphically.

So that's kind of something I hold really close to me and is really important to me, so I didn't like them from the word "go." Burying the hatchet? Sure. If I see them, I'll smile at them, but I'm not going to sit down and have tea and crumpets.

Reality TV World: Art and J.J. said Rachel and Brendon didn't deserve to be in the Race at all because they were just followers and had no real racing skills. What did you think about that team being in the finale? Did you think they deserved to be there, and if not at first, did you change your mind towards the end?

Ralph Kelley: Honestly, it's not my call and like, that's one of those things where anyone that was on the show could've made it there. Obviously skill does come into play, but there's so much luck and there's so many outside factors that come into play while you're racing.

If you miss a cab or the cab driver takes a wrong turn or a rickshaw -- like in India, our rickshaw was going the wrong way and I just had a bad feeling about it and we turned them around. It's just luck.

Reality TV World: When I talked to a few of the other teams this season, I asked them about the drama that played out between yourselves and Rachel and Brendon, and most of them sided with Rachel and Brendon -- claiming Rachel was a very nice girl, while Vanessa, they actually kind of thought the opposite of you. So what's your reaction to that Vanessa? Would you say people wrongly judged you or maybe they just misunderstood you? Why do you think they got the impression you were kind of a "mean girl?"

Vanessa Macias: Yeah, and that's so funny because in every other aspect of my life, I'm very "girl power" and I'm always helping out girls who want to work in any of the industries in which I work. I'm always very, very helpful and I put people in front of the right people and I'm just not a catty mean girl by any stretch of the imagination.

I think what it comes down to is, I didn't like them. (Laughs) I didn't like them and I didn't say anything that nobody else said about them. I just said it while the cameras were rolling and I said it publicly.

Maybe my choice of words weren't the most flattering for either one of us, but I'm not mean per say. I'm not mean -- especially if someone attacks me personally, I'm not mean. But if somebody gets in the face of somebody that's close to me and I really care about, then you know, the claws are going to come out. I get real "momma lion" like that.

Reality TV World: The best you guys ever did throughout the Race was finishing in third place. Why do you think that was? Was it simply because Art and J.J. and Rachel and Dave were really strong competitive teams, or looking back, do you think you could've done anything different to better your racing ability or team dynamic?

Ralph Kelley: There were strong teams and they made good decisions as far as which tasks to tackle and the Fast Forward and all of that came into play. I don't know. I don't think that it was necessarily us and not being good competitors. I just think that they were strong. They were two really strong teams. They had good heads and physically, they were able to pull it out.

Reality TV World: In past The Amazing Race seasons, most teams normally prepared for a task in the finale that would test their knowledge and memory of the prior legs. How much studying had you two done prior to your elimination and throughout the Race in general, and were you surprised you didn't end up getting a task like that?

Vanessa Macias: We were preparing very, very thoroughly. Our notes -- because I'm kind of a nerd -- and by "kind of," I mean I'm "really a nerd." Our notes were just so, so detailed.

We had everything down from the name of the person that was greeting us to what they were wearing and what color their belt was -- every little detail that was in every Roadblock, every clue -- we noted every single little thing. So we were fully anticipating something that would jog memory or just have something to do with the previous legs.

Reality TV World: Art and J.J. suspected that Nary Ebeid and Jamie Graetz weren't actually kindergarten teachers and they proved to be right in the end. What were your thoughts on that when you found out their real professions and do you think it made any sense for them to pull off that cover story or did it not make a difference? Would you have been more intimidated by them if had known the truth or no?

Ralph Kelley: Absolutely not. (Laughs) It didn't matter to us. It was just one of those things that they did it for whatever reason and it really wouldn't have made any difference to us.

Reality TV World: How were you cast on The Amazing Race? Was it your first time applying for the show and would you ever consider doing an all-stars edition if you were given the opportunity?

Vanessa Macias: It was something that I considered doing for 10 years and I was talking to Ralph about it. We were very impulsively decided to go to Dallas and audition. We went, they told us to talk for one minute in front of the camera, we did, they called us back, and we ended up making it. As far as all-stars, I don't know if we could compete together.

Ralph Kelley: But that would be interesting!

Vanessa Macias: (Laughs)

Reality TV World: It sounds like it would be! (Laughs) You guys should consider that.

Ralph Kelley: If they brought us back together, you would have a whole new show, let me tell you that.

Reality TV World: (Laughs) It would be "The Vanessa and Ralph Show." If you two had won The Amazing Race, what do you think you would've spent the money on?

Vanessa Macias: I think another house. I would've bought a house here in San Antonio.

Ralph Kelley: I would have put my daughter through college and probably have done a little traveling. There's two places that we went to during the Race that I would love to go back to.

All teams have bad luck at times I don't think that is much of an excuse. They were actually the team with the 5th highest average placement, so they finished one place higher than maybe they were due.

A video of Vanessa trying her hand at "empty orchestra" (kara-oke; a Japanese exchange student oncementioned his irritation to me that so many people pronounce it "carry-okie" ). I don't listen to rap, so I have no idea how well she did.

San Antonio’s Vanessa Macias, who made waves recently as a finalist on CBS’ “Amazing Race,” doesn’t have the figure for that non-visual medium either.

The curvaceous Macias, nevertheless, just landed a morning gig at country station, KCYY-FM (Y100). She’s the new sidekick to more entrenched morning man Jeff Roper.

“I always preferred radio,” Macias, who caught national attention last spring on network TV with her brash behavior and what she called “a potty mouth” on “Race,” said.

Listen for instances of such earthy talk from 5 to 10 a.m. weekdays at 100.3 on the FM dial. On Tuesday morning, for instance, she credited some “saccharin sweet” romantic statements from Blake Shelton and wife Miranda Lambert for “the vomit in my mouth.”

Her experience? The Incarnate Word High graduate started at KSYM during her San Antonio College years and worked mornings at a station in Austin for a brief time. She was a featured reporter for a time on the early “Great Day SA” and had a travel show on the Fox affiliate here.

As the Y100 morning show is music-intensive, Macias doesn’t have much time to talk. It sounds like Roper leads the conversation and cracks more jokes. She did report the day’s entertainment headlines and added a few quips along the way, however.

She also said country singer Justin Lynch looked like Jud from Pet Sematary; in other words, Fred Gwynne, known to most as Herman Munster. Ouch. . .well, he kind of does.

Macias said she’ll still be working in PR for the San Antonio Talons when the season starts up again. And she’ll continue training with Jesse James Leija for Ringside SA, an upcoming charity event in the Freeman Coliseum that has local celebrity boxers duking it out in the ring while raising money for South Texas Hispanic Fund.

What qualifies Vanessa to be an early-rising country DJ? She’s grown up with those tunes in her native San Antonio.

Besides, she’s used to being wide awake in the wee hours. “I have insomnia,” she said. “I sleep only about four hours a night.”

Vanessa Macias -- part of the Dating Divorcees team on last season's "Amazing Race" -- was arrested in Texas early Friday morning for driving while intoxicated ... TMZ has learned.

32-year-old Macias -- who came in 4th place on "Race" -- was pulled over by the San Antonio Police Department around 2 AM on October 26. During the stop, officers claim they detected the presence of alcohol.

Macias was arrested and hauled to a nearby station where she was booked for misdemeanor DWI -- and posed for an extremely wide-eyed mug shot.

Macias was released a few hours later after posting $1,000 bond.

A rep for Vanessa tells TMZ ... the former reality star feels extremely remorseful over the arrest.